Hawaii Five-0

When one of McGarrett‘s (Alex O’Loughlin) old Navy SEAL buddies turns up dead with a stolen baby in a Cessna that makes an emergency landing on a Naval Air Craft Carrier, Steve is notified by NCIS and politely told to leave the investigation to the Navy. (Haven’t they ever watched the show?) The episode introduces Nazneen Contractor as NCIS Agent Emma Warren who orders McGarrett to stand down multiple times over the course of the episode (even going so far to arrest him at one point) before deciding it would be easier to work with Five-0 than against them. Working together, Five-0 and NCIS discover the reason behind the death of McGarret’s friend and reunite the child with its mother (Sarah Dumont).

This year’s Hawaii Five-0 Halloween episode offers a pair of unusual mysteries. The first involves a murder Jerry (Jorge Garcia) believes was committed as a child. Reunited with a group of his childhood friends, Eric (Andrew Lawrence), and Noelani (Kimee Balmilero) the group looks for a body buried decades ago by an axe-wielding killer only Jerry believes exists. While the premise itself isn’t bad, it does feel a bit late in the game to introduce a murder that has been haunted Jerry for his entire life this late in the show’s run.

When an undercover CIA agent (David Preston) is abducted on-board an incoming flight to Honolulu (in an elaborate attack that looks good on camera but makes almost no sense as opposed to grabbing the man on the ground), Danny (Scott Caan) leads Five-0 into the jungle where they encounter Chinese agents. The attempted kidnapping ties back to Greer (Rochelle Aytes) and the death of Miller (Jack Coleman). While completely out of character for McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) to give up the chance to hunt in the jungle, putting Danny in his place as a mentor to the younger members of the team freshens up the jungle chase the show has used several times over the years. Five-0 is successful in capturing both Greer and recovering the wounded agent, although Greer believes her knowledge of McGarret and their missions together can still cause problems for Five-0’s commander.

In a nod to the original Hawaii Five-0, the show’s season premiere involves McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) being tortured in a deprivation tank. Director Bryan Spicer obviously loves the scene, and the odd design of the suit McGarrett is wearing, because he repeats various parts of it at least three times during the episode. The crime that eventually leads us there involves a dead agent of the CIA found washed up on the beach. Because the man was an old friend, and he’s one of several agents to die suspiciously over the past few months, McGarret and Five-0 begin an investigation (without sharing details to the CIA) which will eventually lead to Steve purposely getting himself captured in order to offer disinformation during the same torture process that killed his friend. As plans go, it turns out to be the usual mix of McGarrett bravery and stupidity.

Hawaii Five-0 can sometimes get a bit carried away with stories that strain the show’s credibility to (and sometimes past) all reasonable limits, as with the show’s Eight Season finale. When a Russian nuclear submarine shows up on the beaches of Hawaii, Five-0 goes on the search for a missing seaman who leaves a trail of bodies in his wake. What starts out as a search for a single Russian grows with the discovery of a sleeper cell of Russian spies all over the island. Eventually you get McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) boarding the nuclear sub, the entire Five-0 team shooting up a Russian embassy, the team forcibly taking a Russian spy from Russian soil (by blackmailing local officials), and somehow none of this causes an international incident.